Canada’s housing crisis has become a national policy priority, and for good reason. Affordability is at generational lows, rental markets are straining under record population growth, and homebuilding has slowed even as demand rises. Governments have responded with ambitious targets, zoning reforms and tax changes. Yet the gap between policy ambition and on-the-ground results remains stubbornly wide.
That gap is not just about capital or regulation. It’s also about perspective. Canadian housing policy is being made largely without the insight of those closest to its day-to-day failures: the real estate brokers and agents navigating this market in real time.
These professionals – licensed, regulated, and embedded in communities across the country – are not part of advisory panels or roundtables. They are not routinely consulted when legislation is drafted or programs are rolled out. But they are the first to see where housing policy is succeeding, stalling, or simply missing the mark.
That needs to change.
“Real estate professionals are the connective tissue between buyers and sellers, developers and planners, regulation and behaviour.”
Recent federal and provincial housing strategies are built around one shared premise: build more, faster. The federal government has committed to doubling home construction to around 500,000 starts per year by the early 2030s. Ontario has pledged to add 1.5 million homes by 2031, which still will not meet demand. British Columbia has implemented province-wide zoning reforms legalizing up to six units on most single-family lots. Municipalities are being pushed to meet supply targets or risk losing federal funding.
These are consequential efforts. But many are faltering on delivery.
Ontario housing starts fell 25 per cent in the first half of 2025. Developers across the country are delaying or cancelling projects due to high financing costs, labour shortages and permitting delays. CMHC recently projected that unless conditions shift dramatically, Canada will fall short of its 2030 housing target by 1.3 million homes.
Much of the public discussion focuses on macro factors: inflation, interest rates, tax policy, and immigration levels. But missing from the conversation is the input of those working inside the system every day. Real estate professionals are the connective tissue between buyers and sellers, developers and planners, regulation and behaviour. Their absence from policymaking leaves strategies vulnerable to blind spots and misfires.
Blind bidding debate
Consider the federal proposal to ban blind bidding. It was introduced as a solution to affordability, based on the assumption that bidding wars were artificially inflating prices. But brokers and agents in competitive markets had long observed that blind bidding was a symptom, not a cause, of price escalation. Scarcity, not secrecy, was driving the frenzy.
Studies have since confirmed what agents already knew: jurisdictions with open bidding formats experience similar, sometimes sharper, price increases in hot markets. Ontario’s recent move to allow (but not require) open bidding has seen almost no uptake among sellers. Agents could have predicted that, too: when listings are scarce, transparency does little to change outcomes.
This is just one example. Brokers across Canada are navigating the real consequences of housing policy. They are hearing from buyers who can’t qualify under current stress test rules, builders stymied by slow approvals, seniors unable to downsize because of a lack of local options, and newcomers struggling to find a foothold in overheated rental markets.
Their insight could help shape better policy, but too often, it is left out entirely.
Boots on the ground perspective
There are more than 160,000 licensed Realtors in Canada, many of them operating through franchised brokerages that serve specific communities but also track trends nationally. They see the ripple effects of tax policy, financing rules and regulatory changes not in theory, but in practice; through listing behaviour, client financing challenges, and transaction timelines.
These are not anecdotal inputs. They are early signals of how policy is landing in the real world.
When interest rates rise, brokers don’t just see a decline in demand; they see where deals fall apart, who gets priced out, and what types of housing are sitting longer on the market. When zoning changes are made, they track whether sellers are adjusting expectations and whether buyers are ready to act. When affordability programs launch, they see who qualifies, who falls short… and why.
Real estate agents are not just intermediaries. They are interpreters of policy, friction, and behaviour, and are essential to making the system work.
‘What’s missing is the voice of the front lines’
Housing policy cannot succeed through mandates alone. Execution matters. So does feedback. Governments at all levels should formalize consultation mechanisms with front-line real estate agents, not just with industry associations, but with active brokers and agents across regions and market segments.
The federal government’s proposed national housing roundtable is a step in the right direction. But it must include representation from the front lines, the people facilitating transactions, fielding client concerns, and tracking policy consequences in real time. Provinces and municipalities should do the same when implementing zoning reform, development charges or buyer protection measures.
This is not about giving industry players veto power. It is about designing better policy with more complete information, and avoiding the lag between drafting and delivery.
If governments do not course correct now, they risk continuing to build policy that looks strong on paper but breaks on contact with the market.
Canada’s housing goals are ambitious, and rightly so. But success won’t be determined in press releases or legislative chambers. It will be measured in permits issued, homes built, and families housed.
Real estate professionals don’t set those goals. But they do see, earlier than most, what’s working and what’s not. If governments want policy to succeed, they need to tap that insight, not after the fact, but from the outset.
There is no shortage of task forces or reports in Canadian housing policy. What’s missing is the voice of the front lines; the brokers and agents navigating the realities policymakers are trying to solve.
If governments are serious about fixing housing in this country, they can’t afford to keep building strategy in a vacuum. If we keep excluding the people closest to the system, we will keep building failure into it. It is time to bring real estate professionals into the room. And not just to listen. To lead.
Paul Abbott is the National Vice-President of Franchise Development at Coldwell Banker Canada, where he leads the company’s growth strategy and supports the expansion of its national brokerage network. With a background in franchising, marketing, and operations across multiple sectors, he brings a strategic lens to real estate development and partnerships. Paul works closely with broker-owners across the country to identify opportunities, navigate the franchise lifecycle, and build long-term value within the Coldwell Banker Canada system.